World Economic Forum: Dubai

Tomorrow I’m flying to Dubai. As I wrote previously, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has asked me to join their Council on Philanthropy & Social Investing. The Council helps set the agenda for the Forum’s annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

The trip to Dubai should be rather amazing. There are over 80 other Councils on subjects ranging from Climate Change to Systematic Financial Risk to Marketing and Branding. The Philanthropy council includes such notable names as Paul Brest, the president of the Hewlett Foundation, Matthew Bishop, The Economic magazine bureau chief and coiner of the word Philanthrocapitalism, Jed Emerson and Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of Acumen Fund. Members of other councils include:

  • Tony Blair, ex-Prime Minister of the UK
  • Al Gore, ex-Vice President of the United States
  • Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired Magazine
  • Vinton G. Cerf, Internet Chief Evangelist, Google Inc.
  • Chris DeWolfe, Founder and CEO, MySpace.com
  • Chad Hurley Co-Founder and CEO YouTube Inc.
  • Betsy Morgan, CEO, The Huffington Post
  • Barham Salih, Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq
  • Tim Brown President, CEO, IDEO Inc
  • Joel M. Podolny, Dean, Yale School of Management
  • Maria Bartiromo, Anchor, CNBC

While I’m in Dubai I’ll be blogging as much as I can although the actual council sessions are off the record. The conference will be amazing enough, but for anyone out of the loop realize that Dubai is probably one of the most amazing places in the world at the current time. Try running a Google Image search on the word Dubai! 25% of the world’s construction cranes are currently stationed in this small state!

Maybe I can get into the habit of posting more photos on this blog. Dubai would be a good place to start.

2 Comments

  1. Leanne says:

    What I would give to be a fly on the wall!

  2. KP Joseph says:

    I am happy to find this blog on the internet. Philanthropy is becoming a major tool in creating a better world.
    Sharing the wealth is as important as creating new wealth.What is of importance is to focus help on the bottom ten percent of the poor and deprived segment of population .Mahatma Gandhi said when ever a decision affecting people are taken , the poorest person should be focussed to receive benefit from the decision.Mahatma Gandhi also said that there is enough in the world to satisfy the need of men and women , but not greed.It is important to curb greed by public personalities setting example example to others . I am interested in steps taken by World Economic Forum to lighen misery and deprivation of the poor of the world